letting my marriage thrive after infidelity

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Their are a lot of definitions of privacy. Freedom from the state of being observed. Being apart from other people. Solitude. The state of being concealed. Secrecy. How does this multi-dimensional word fit into a marriage that has lost it’s footing through a series of lies and deceits? Maybe it doesn’t.

I ate 2 chocolate bars yesterday. This is my right. This has no bearing on my husband. It’s not a great nutritional decision but I don’t have compromised health so it won’t affect my life, nor my husbands. I find it somewhat embarrassing that I couldn’t control my desires. I couldn’t stop at one…or bet yet at one half. I devoured two. It is no one’s business but my own. I struggled with an eating disorder in college so I find the fact that I lost control to be rather shameful. Yet, told my husband.

The reason why I told him is simply because we are practicing what it feels like to have complete transparency in our relationship. It’s not always easy to do, and truth be told it took me 24 hours to tell him what I had done with the chocolate bars. But I did it – and it felt good. Of course, chocolate is the easy part.

After our infidelities, both my husband and I needed to come clean to one another about our betrayals of each other. In the presence of my amazing therapist, we told one another all of our secrets. This was one of the hardest exercises we have ever done. My husband went so far as to take a lie detector (his idea) so I could be confident there were no other secrets. Even one morsel of a lie is a foundation for another. Once we came clean, we truly don’t want to dirty ourselves again. It’s like a shiny new car – the first speck of dirt is noticed and examined and wiped away quickly. But once you let it go, you barely notice when it’s become weeks since it’s been washed. My husband and I are hyper vigilant to keep that first speck of dirt from landing on our marriage.

Is this the right path for everyone? Honestly, I don’t know why it’s not. What is the point of keeping a secret from the person you love most in the world. How does that honor him/her? How does that show respect for their ability to be empathetic? I argue that it doesn’t. For a relationship to be truly honored, it needs to be free of lies and the pain that comes with them.

There is, of course, a flip side. There are rules. 1. Each partner needs to willingly give the other space. There is no benefit to listening to every call, reading every email and otherwise controlling all of their communication. Maybe in the immediate aftermath of an affair discovery this would be the case – but that needs to be eliminated or reduced as quickly as possible. If it’s not, the betrayed will become obsessive and this will hurt them. 2. If the spouse judges everything that they are told – this is also disrespectful and won’t further the relationship. This will make the person who is trying to share want to revert back into their shell of secrecy. If you are being respected with the truth, then you need to be mature enough to handle it. 3. Don’t ask if you don’t want to know. This isn’t an exercise for those who aren’t committed to rebuilding a healthy, happy marriage. It’s not a way to get ammunition to use against them. 4. This is a two way street. You can’t expect honesty if you aren’t willing to give it back. What did you do this week that you didn’t share with your mate? Did you say something disrespectful about them to someone they know? Did you act inappropriately in any manner? Did you eat 2 chocolate bars and hide the wrappers?

Once the one who was hurt by a secret or a lie learns that they have access, when needed, to any information they require – then hopefully they can become less concerned with it. Once this fight for knowledge is put to rest – a more open, loving, intimate, equal relationship can start to grow again. More importantly, once they witness their spouse telling them their inner most truths – then, and only then, can trust begin to reemerge.

My husband, being a sex addict, had countless liaisons with people over the years. 95% of these acting out partners were strangers. He didn’t know their names, didn’t care who they were, and probably wouldn’t recognize most of them in a crowd. Of course, there were a couple of women who he did know. They weren’t close friends, just acquaintances who made it clear they had loose boundaries and he ended up having sex with them. Never more than 2 or 3 times – the thrill would wear off for him by then and he would move on.

I’ve written before about this one person who still contacts him. The emails from her are few and far between – maybe twice a year – but every time she reached out to him in the past it really triggered me. I felt sick to my stomach and got angry with my husband and started to ask questions that had already been answered. Until now.

A few days ago, my husband saw an email from this person. she sent it late at night so he received it when he got up in the morning. He needed to leave for work before I got up so he came to wake me. He said “I didn’t want to wake you but I need to tell you that I got an email from that lunatic”. At first I didn’t know who he meant, but I figured it out pretty quickly. I asked him what it said and he said he hadn’t read it yet. He asked if I would like to get up so we could read it together. I rose and we read the stupid email. It was just a sentence or two of no consequence. I don’t understand why she writes to him especially since he hasn’t had contact with her in 2 years. From her emails, it doesn’t appear to be romantic or with a desire to see him. The simplest explanation is that she is afraid of him being her enemy since they work in the same industry.

I don’t know her reasons, but still she writes. Every time she does, we read it (and delete it) together. But one thing changed this time. I didn’t have a negative physical reaction. I didn’t dwell on it all day. I didn’t feel anger toward my husband. I saw this for exactly what it was. I’m not talking about this woman and her motivations. I am talking about my husbands actions. He isn’t hiding anything from me. He didn’t pre-read her message to find out what it said before alerting me to it. He loves me and wants me to learn to completely trust him again. This is the truth.

My husband has offered for me to put a rule on his account so that her emails will forward to me, or will be immediately deleted, or bounce back to her. Anything I want. Anything that makes me feel comfortable. I used to want to read them for some clue about his relationship with her. I thought perhaps there were secrets I didn’t know. But that’s not the case. I know everything I need to know. I know he is sick and acted out with her and others. I also know that he is recovering and changed and worthy of my love and trust. I don’t need to control his emails to know all of this.

This gal may write again, she may not. I don’t really care. I couldn’t much control it if I did. But, from here on out, it won’t affect my relationship with my husband if and when she does. This is freedom.

It’s the life force of civilization. It’s the one constant in life. It’s uncomfortable and frightening and ignites our fears. It’s CHANGE.

When I look at my past, the most profound times in my life were during major life changes. All of these changes weren’t perfect in and of themselves. But they all improved my life by the way they affected me. The experiences surrounding changes in my life made me a better, more experienced, more open minded person.

When your relationship becomes affected by infidelity, there are a number of different paths you can take. You can stay or you can leave. You can go into denial or you can face the situation head on. You can forgive or you can resent. I challenge you to explore the path that involves the most change. I don’t mean surface change, as would occur if you moved out and got a new house, a new mate, a new life. I mean deep, profound, internal change.

I am over simplifying a bit, but lets look at 2 options and what opportunities they hold for change.

1. You leave your husband. This is sometimes the best or only option. For instance, if your partner is not willing to take responsibility for his actions, or if he is abusive or if he wants a divorce. In this case there will be an unsettling period of situational changes while you go through separation and divorce. However, once the dust has settled, who are you going to be? Will you remain the same person you were prior to the divorce? If so, statistics show that you will probably enter another relationship with someone who is exactly like the one you just left. You won’t recognize it to begin with, the decision is a subconscious one, but eventually it will come to light and you will find yourself if the same place as you were before. It’s a strange phenomenon, but if we don’t change ourselves, we all tend to repeat our relationship patterns. The challenge here is to deeply and honestly explore how you ended up in this position in the first place. The answer isn’t as simple as “he is a lying cheating asshole”. The answer lies in the reasons YOU CHOSE TO BE WITH this lying cheating asshole in the first place. What familial patterns attracted you to this person? What signs did you ignore along the way? What role did you play in enabling his behavior? If you don’t want to repeat your cycle, then do this work, answer these questions and MAKE CHANGES IN YOUR PATTERNS before you start a new relationship.

2. You stay. Maybe he apologizes and promises this will never happen again. Perhaps he makes some grand gesture that convinces you to believe him. You will probably have a few blow up flights, a couple of nights with him on the sofa, some very real and very wet tears. You might convince him to go to a therapy session or two. Then, you get back to your routine and quite frankly, you don’t want to think about it or talk about it again. You tell him that you will let it go this time but threaten if he does it again you will dump him. This isn’t using the situation to better yourself. This decision is based on fear. Fear of the truth. Fear of uncovering painful pasts. Fear of change. Life events that are this traumatizing can’t be swept under the rug. The entire foundation of your relationship, your trust and faith in the one person who was supposed to protect you has been shattered. This deserves your attention. Not a little bit of attention – A LOT OF ATTENTION. You need to mourn and heal and talk and grow. You need to look at your roll in his behavior. You need to look at why you want to just ‘forgive and forget’ (as though that is possible). You need to look at what you need to start feeling safe again. You need to rebuild (more likely you need to build for the first time) a basis of intimacy with your partner. You need to slowly allow yourself to be vulnerable again. You need to share all of your feelings and listen to all of his. You need to learn self care. You need to learn to decipher intuition from fear. This is an amazing opportunity to grow into a more trusting, vulnerable, communicative, smarter, more confident person.

In both of these scenario’s there is a choice. You can ignore your role in the events. I don’t mean that you caused him to cheat or that his affair was your fault. I mean that you selected this person as your mate. You probably ignored suspicions about his fidelity long before you got proof of his activities. You may have contributed in any number of ways. But here is a chance to learn about your self – about your coping mechanisms, your intuition and how your childhood and past affects your current relationship. You can learn how to care for yourself, how to put your needs first, set personal boundaries and become a more confident, secure person.

This affair doesn’t need to swallow you hole. It doesn’t need to leave you numb. It can be the beginning of an amazing future relationship either with your current spouse or with a new mate. But, first, you need to welcome the change.

I missed my boyfriend today. I shouldn’t call him that because he is no longer my boyfriend – but it’s the name I have given him in this blog. I should rename him for the sake of this post. Let’s go with Mr Jameson – one of his favorite drinks. Mr J was my boyfriend on and off for about 12 years before I met and married my husband. We were pretty serious for a few of those years – 4 years here, 2 years there, a bunch of break ups and get backs in between. It was my most significant relationship in my 20’s and 30’s prior to meeting my husband. He was driven, charming, super successful, adventurous and a whole lot of fun to be around. He was also short tempered, afraid of intimacy, occasionally abusive and non committal.

I came from a proper, conservative upbringing so I had put Mr Jameson behind me when I married. I figured he would be the guy I might eventually send a Christmas card to (once he married as well, of course). I thought it would be nice for my husband to meet him some day (I know they would like one another). He was my ex but I certainly didn’t hate him. In fact, about 3 weeks before I met and got engaged to my husband, Mr Jameson and I were planning a getaway to Mexico.

After my wedding, I stayed away from Mr Jameson. No emails, not phone calls, nothing. It was the proper thing to do now that I was married. But the day after I found out that my husband had been cheating on me, he is the person I reached out to. I didn’t initially tell him why I reached out – I just sent a benign email saying ‘hello’ and asking if he ever visited California (where I moved when Mr J and I broke up). An email volley ensued – polite and friendly to begin with – then a subtle suggestion that we missed one another – and then a full blown exploration of ‘what if’s’ and ‘could we’s’ and ‘maybes’….

I didn’t physically see Mr Jameson for a few years. We emailed and texted and flirted intermittently. I would reach out when I felt lonely or angry with my husband. He would provide a distraction which I mistook for comfort. It wasn’t comfort of course – it was just fuel for my fantasy of a better world with a better person in a better place. Ah, how green that grass can seem!

After a few years of putting off the inevitable, we started a physical affair. Mr Jameson lived on the other side of the country – and I was married – so we didn’t see one another often – but we did see one another. During those random days and nights I appreciated the familiarity most of all. It was our history together which drove me to him. He knew me when I was 23 and hopeful and young. He was a reminder of who I was in a time before life and husbands and aging and cheating became concerns. It wasn’t that I loved being with him as much as I loved who I was when I was with him. To be honest, when I was feeling so much confusion and pain in my own marriage I couldn’t imagine having an affair with a stranger – it doesn’t make sense to me at all – but I know many people do that.

About 2 years ago, after years of inappropriate behavior with Mr J, I told my husband about the affair. It was REALLY hard to do – but I knew that if I kept that secret to myself then I would be tempted to reach out to Mr J again. Once the slate is clean it’s a much bigger leap to dirty it again. If you don’t understand that concept – just think about eating cake. If you are in great shape and good health and regularly eat cake you don’t think twice about ordering it. If you are however on a strict no sugar diet because you are diabetic and it can truly harm you then it’s quite a big decision to take a bite. By telling my husband everything that had happened – I put myself on a very strict diet which does not allow any Jameson. I can’t say it’s impossible that I would ever contact him again, but I definitely won’t ever reach out to him mindlessly, as it would literally poison everything I have worked for.

To get to the point of this post – yesterday, I wrote on someone’s comment page about affairs and loneliness and blah blah blah. So last night Mr J creeped into one of my dreams. It wasn’t sorted or dirty – I just ran into him and we embraced and it was nice. Needless to say, that led to him being on my mind after I woke this morning. Not because I want to continue our affair (I don’t) but because he was a massive part of my life for 2 decades and when I am reminded of him I do miss him. I miss him as I would anyone else who was that important to me for so long. It saddens me that I can’t send a text saying “hey…I was reminded of you today…hope you are well”. But I can’t. Because I crossed a boundary that was not good for my relationship. Had I not allowed my heart and body to crossed that line, Mr J could still be in my life as a friend. We could grab a beer with my husband when we are visiting Chicago. But this is not longer an option.

The moral of this post is this – and it’s intended for those who are cheating:

1. Be honest with yourself about your feelings. I confused loneliness for love. I thought that because I craved Mr J that I loved him. That’s not true. I craved him because he could distract me from my intense pain. Mr J couldn’t fix my loneliness – only reconnecting with my husband could do that.

2. When I felt myself thinking about Mr J today I didn’t allow it to take over my mind. I instead focused on what I could do for my husband and for our relationship. I planned and prepared an amazing dinner and can’t wait for him to get home so I can share it with him. When you are drawn to another – stop and refocus your energy and your mind back to the place where it belongs.

3. Don’t mess up your relationships with co-workers, neighbors or ex’s to have an affair on your spouse. In the end, you aren’t going to end up with that person and you will have destroyed what could have been a lifelong friendship.

4. Finally, cheating will never, ever bring anything but loneliness and loss. No matter how ‘justified’ it seems – all it does is breeds distrust in the other and shame in yourself.

The grass is always greener over the fence. And it will remain that way until you start to water your own lawn. Speaking of..I need to get back to making a feast for my husband and I.

My mom still occasionally recounts a story about being in the basement in our family home and hearing a ruckus on the 2nd floor. It was my older sisters who had started a screaming match. My mom ran up the stairs toward the bedrooms. As she passed by the kitchen she suddenly stopped and backed up. She needed some m&m’s before she could emotionally deal with whatever was happening on the floor above her. She jokes that she is a chocolate addict. Who’s to say she isn’t.

We all use distractions as a coping mechanism. When we are stressed at work we mindlessly eat some chips. When we get home to a house full of needy family members we tune out with the tv. Our boss criticizes our work and we have an extra drink at dinner. Cigarettes, food, tv, internet, exercise, shopping, drinking – and porn – are all forms of distraction. Some of these distractions are obviously more harmful to our health and/or relationships than others.

Lets take Ashley Madison for instance. I remember the first time I saw a billboard for this website. It said “Life’s short – have an affair”. I thought it was an advertisement for an upcoming movie or tv show. More and more of these ads started to pop up around town and one day curiosity got the best of me. I went to the website and learned it’s purpose. It scared me. I knew my husband was a sex addict and I thought ‘oh great – it just keeps getting easier for him’. The truth is, if someone is an addict – or if they are just a jerk looking to cheat – no one needs Ashley Madison. They will find a way. History has alway had an Ashley Madison – Los Angeles had Heidi Fleiss, Chicago had Iceburg Slim, “Gone with the Wind” had Belle Watling. Of course the internet has made it easier to procure a lover. It’s also made it cheaper and more legal. In the past, men went to prostitutes to fill their sexual needs. Now people of both genders go to Ashley Madison – maybe for sex – but more often to temporarily cure their loneliness. I’m not sure what percentage of people actually have physical affairs as a result of that site. Probably less than you would suspect. The thrill of the online profile and an occasional email is probably enough to bring people back to the present and out of their bubble of obsession. But this porn has destroyed plenty of marriages. Even if the person who paid for the website never had an affair, the trust was destroyed when the spouse found out and a marriage and family fell apart. It’s really sad.

Here is a bit of advice/warning for anyone looking to join this site. Ashley Madison is evil. Not because of the ‘service’ it provides – but because of the greed it displays. Ashley Madison claims to put charges through to your credit card under a benign name. That benign name is ADL media. Ummm, not that hard to figure out if you just google that term (adult dating life). If/when you realize it’s mostly fake ads and sex workers and you wise up and decide to cancel the account they charge you to do so. Here is the kicker – the cancellation charge is listed under ASHLEY MADISON on your credit card statement. It may show up as ‘AM media’ or some such thing – but regardless of the wording, what they do is make it completely obvious what the payment is for and as a result many relationships are destroyed. The irony is that it’s when someone decides to do the right thing and remove their profile that their behavior is usually discovered by their spouse. Damn. That’s harsh. Of course you can get around this – use a prepaid c/c or whatever. Where there is a will there is a way.

I may have digressed in this post. So back to the topic. Ashley Madison, like any other version of porn, is a distraction from our daily stress. If you’re drawn to these sites they become addictive. It’s a thrill to get a secret email from an admirer. Doesn’t make you bad to have that feeling – it’s human. But it would make you a better human if you could try to find a different method of obtaining your thrill and validation. There are a lot of distractions to chose from in the world – would be nice if you could choose one that won’t destroy the worlds of those you love.

Everything that is hurt needs to heal. It doesn’t matter if it’s a stubbed toe or an ego. Scientists have proven than emotional and physical pain are both centered in the same part of the brain, so why is it that feelings – which exist only in our brain – can take so much longer to heal than an actual flesh wound.

I watched my mastectomy scars improve every day when I first had surgery. I was amazed by how quickly my body rallied to heal itself. Within weeks they looked pretty amazing. They still exist, and always will, but they don’t hurt when I touch them. When I look at the scars, there is nothing triggering. I don’t feel the pain of the surgery or the anxiety surrounding it. They are just a lasting but benign result of an incision which may have saved my life.

How funny that our bodies can recuperate so completely and swiftly – but when our feelings are hurt the pain is so much more intense – and hangs on for what seems to be forever. Even when the feelings start to heal, one wrong reminder can reopen the emotional wound and we are right back where we started feeling all of those hurt feelings again like they just happened.

When I first found out that husband was unfaithful the number of physical symptoms that went along with my hurt was shocking. The lump in my throat, the nausea in my stomach, the uncontrollable shaking, the weight loss, the fear. I even got a fever the night I found out. I knew that it was just my feelings reacting to the stress in my body but I didn’t have any tools that could control it.

I think that part of the difference, and one reason why old emotional wounds are so easily accessed, is because we don’t tend to emotional pain in the way we do physical pain. With my mastectomy I started taking supplements a month prior to surgery so my body would have the vitamins and minerals it needed to heal. I cut out wheat, sugar and alcohol to eliminate inflammation and added in white chicken meat to up my protein level. I made sure everything I ate and drank was organic and fresh. I consulted with many surgeons to make sure I had the right team of doctors. I read books and researched how to heal quickly and painlessly. After the surgery I rested and slept and saw my doctors for lots of check ups. I was tended to night and day by my husband and mother. I was prayed for by countless friends and strangers. I listened to healing meditations at least 4 times a day. I repeated mantra’s to tell my body to heal. I applied creams and salves and had physical therapy for weeks. All this to recover from a surgery.

By comparison, the first time I found out about my husbands infidelity I cried alone, I yelled at him and then ignored him. I didn’t tell any friends and didn’t have a therapist. I refused to hear about – much less learn about – sex addiction.

I think it’s obvious why my body healed better than my feelings. I helped my body in every way I knew to heal itself. But when I was emotionally hurt I didn’t tend to my feelings with the same commitment. My feelings didn’t heal and I suffered for many years with insecurity, anger, confusion and suspicions.

Cut to the discovery of my husbands relapse 2 years ago. That time, the initial pain was equally as horrible as the first time around. All the symptoms that were there the first time – the shaking, the nausea, the tears – were all present. But this time around I healed. Instead of getting angry and yelling at my husband I held him and comforted him and helped him. Instead of keeping it all to myself I shared it with other wives of addicts who I had met over the years. This time I attended and shared at S-Anon meetings. This time I found an amazing therapist who deals specifically in this area and I committed to letting her help me. I journaled a lot. I read lots of books on the subject of sex addition. I talked to my husband for countless hours sharing every feeling and fear with my husband. And like with my mastectomy, I can still see the scars, but they don’t trigger me the way they did the first time around. I took care of myself – and it shows. I am working on my meditation practice (I wish this came easier to me!) so it is in place the next time I have an emotional or physical trauma. It’s life. Things happen. We need to prepare.

I’m sure there is an entire scientific study about physical versus emotional healing which would be way over my head. But I am pretty sure that taking care of our emotional wounds with the same care and gentle touch that we do our physical wounds will help them heal better. At least it can’t hurt.

I follow a lot of other women who, like me, had their worlds turned upside down due to infidelity and/or sex addiction. Many of these women regularly talk about and refer to “D-Day”. From what I gather, this is the day that they found out about the transgression(s) of their spouse. I suspect that “D” stands for “Discovery”.

My D-Day is coming up sometime in the next week or so. I don’t remember the date exactly, though I could look it up by checking my old emails. I’m not sure the exact day matters, but I will pick a day later this month and my husband and I will celebrate.

In U.S. history D-day was the beginning of the end of the Nazi invasion of Western Europe. There was a lot of loss during the invasion of Normandy, but yet we celebrate the day as it was the beginning of the end of a horrible time in world history.

I think of the day 2 years ago when I discovered my husbands unbelievable behaviors as the beginning of the end of a horrible time in my marital history. The details of the day would certainly be painful if I chose to dwell on them. But the longterm growth and benefits that resulted from that day have made the pain worth it. Had the discovery not happened, we would have both spent the last two years in the limbo that was our relationship. We would have been perfectly amicable with one another, but not intimate. We would have cared about one another, but not loved unconditionally. If D Day didn’t happen, he would still be acting out with strangers and I would still be cheating on him with my ex. We would be sharing the same house, but not sharing our truest selves with one another. We would be lying to each other as well as to ourselves. We would be lonely and unfulfilled.

We have both grown and changed so very much in the last 2 years. We love one another with transparency and respect. We communicate with our hearts, not just our minds. We can count on each other with a confidence that I have never felt before. This wouldn’t have happened without the discovery.

I’m not sure how other’s get through their “D-day” but I will call is “Devotion Day” or “Determination Day” or “Damn it if we didn’t make it Day”. I will dress up and wear expensive perfume and hold my husband tight and celebrate all that we have endured – together.